Some employees act very unprofessionally and they like to discriminate against Afro-Latinos. They act very professionally if the person is an elderly jew, asian, mexican, ecuadorian. If the costumer is a white, blonde hair, blue eyed, dominican then the staff treats them like royalty. However, the staff repeatedly tries to discriminate the darker members of my family and constantly tries to cause stressful/scandalous confrontations (try to antagonize my family) with different form of micro-aggressions, some of which are intentional torts and actual crimes.
Crimes do not only comprise of criminal law - these actions endured are against both discrimination law that lies under the umbrella of FEDERAL LAW (unfair segregation practices) and common law (and these both apply in NY). Just because it is not listed under NY penal law does not mean it is not ILLEGAL. Certain staff members like to price gouge which is unethical and exploitative. They change the price that darker members of my family have to pay at the check out, at times, and attempt to segregate my family repeatedly with different micro-aggressions while claiming that we "should go somewhere else then" or "shouldn't go to target anymore if we don't like the unfair treatment" - Albeit, this being a nearby location that has unique items that disabled members of my family purchase.
Additionally, a police officer that was hired by target yelled, attempted to antagonize and provoke, and threatened violence against me and an elderly afro-latina woman with cancer because we asked him for help with the actions of the staff. When he displayed a carefree antagonistic attitude about how he wouldn't help us because the matter wasn't "criminal" and how I would have to take it up "with target" even though he is a target employee (hired by target), I told him that I hope one day he can understand the injustice we are going through and that this happens one day to his family , so that he can empathize with how we are feeling. If he couldn't help us and there was no discrimination issue then that shouldn't have triggered him to yell across the store, claim that I'm disrespectful, and threaten violence. I tried to defuse the situation asking him to stop yelling, not be violent, and empathize with the situation, explaining that we are all human here, however, he wouldn't stop the behavior until target employees came to calm him down while he's supposed to be the protector of the peace in the store. I understand if he was going through a bad day, lots of stress in life, overworked, or he misunderstood my statements, but the issue is that the problem with this target is ongoing.
In addition, the officer (Newton) stood in front of the automatic stair case that led to costumer relations to prevent us from submitting a claim "claiming it was closed". "Cy" did provide us with the number to costumer service before we left which was a bit of an improvement as a manager, however he didn't provide us with the number until the whole scandal with the police officer was over - he could have done this in order to be helpful earlier.
In regards, to other staff members involved, the staff member that handled this matter unprofessionally, laughing at the situation where the price was entered differently as labeled was "Melanie". "Cy", allegedly the manager, deemed that there was nothing he could do to correct the price of the item to reflect it's actual price because it's an "automatic electronic entry that came up from target" - however, I know for a fact there's always a way to check the actual price of the item, check to see if it actually has a tax (which it didn't because it was a food item) and override the error.
A positive aspect - "Kevin" was very nice and helpful to us and helped to pack our bags before this incident occurred. So no, it's not a conspiracy, and not all the workers are horrible people. It's specific people at the store that feel they can do whatever they'd like as an "essential worker". These people have locked my family member in a security room, which is false imprisonment, claiming that they've stolen an item and, in conclusion, they couldn't find any item that was "allegedly stolen". Mind you, the family member was still in the store when she was taken and locked into the room (she hadn't even left the store yet).
All in all, the next time we go to target you're going to stop harassing us. Because we are very sweet, loving, understanding people that have gone to target many, many, times and, more often than not, we have been dealing with constant gestures of intimidation, discrimination, and micro-aggressions but we are very humble in reaction, more often than not, and ignore it.
Every time we go to target I'm going to record the entire experience including the faces and voices of all staff members and we'll see how experience will go! Peace and love. read more